In March, when President Donald Trump vowed to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and restrict birthright citizenship, Laura Zhang found herself in despair. Throughout 2024, Laura and the New York Make America Great Again (MAGA) team actively campaigned for Donald Trump across key states, including New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. For the 20 days leading up to the 2024 presidential election, they were stationed in Philadelphia, registering new voters — especially in the Chinese American community — and handing out campaign flyers outside six major Asian supermarkets. 

Before she became a follower of Trump, Zhang had traveled back and forth for many years between China and the U.S. in search of the best support for her daughter, a U.S. citizen by birthright who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2. Laura Zhang had long believed that enrolling her daughter in an American public school with its guaranteed access to specialized education was the right decision. Beginning in January, she started touring schools across New York City, looking for the best programs for children with special needs. 

But by March, less than two months after Trump retook office, the Department of Education slashed its staff by half, froze federal funding, and canceled grants for research and teacher training. Critics warned that the changes could make special education less available for students with disabilities. For Zhang, the implications were deeply personal and she began rethinking her support for Trump.

Trump’s proposal to end birthright citizenship — targeting families just like hers — was even more alarming. By late March, with growing uncertainty clouding her daughter’s future, Zhang abandoned her original plan to settle in the U.S. and returned to China. “It’s like prescribing medicine too aggressively — you end up killing healthy cells along with the bad ones. I strongly disagree with this approach,” she said, speaking in Mandarin. 

Zhang now finds herself part of a visible backlash taking shape within the Asian American community, as a growing number of former Trump devotees begin to turn away from Trump and his presidency. In an April survey by the Pew Research Center, Trump’s overall approval rating dropped to 40% — a 7-point decline since February. Yet among Asian Americans, the drop of Trump’s approval rating was even more pronounced, falling from 47% to just 29% in two months. 

Paul Frymer, associate professor of politics at Princeton University, believes the widespread opposition to Trump’s policies, including issues like DOGE, deportation, and tariffs, has served as a wake-up call for these voters, and has led to a sense of buyer’s remorse. “The backlash against Trump certainly had momentum, and public opinion is strongly negative at the moment,” Frymer said. “I think he’s affecting immigrants in a way that people didn’t expect.”

Jiakun Jack Zhang, a public intellectual fellow at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, thought a minority of Asian Americans who voted for Trump in 2024 were drawn to Trump’s message about a number of issues, including crime, immigration, DEI, and his promises to cut taxes. But Jiakun noted, “The chaotic implementation like deportations, and less than impressive outcomes like curbing inflation have been a wake-up call for these voters and given some second thoughts.” 

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Chinese Americans are historically more likely than the general population to vote Democratic, aligning with policies that support social welfare, diversity, and immigrant rights. From 2016 to 2024, however, Chinese-American support for Trump rose by 16% — from 11% to 27% — according to AAPI Data, a research organization for Asian-American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities.

Meet the “Chinese MAGA Mamas”

While some Asian American devotees may be reconsidering their loyalty, there remain others who haven’t wavered in their devotion.

The day of Trump’s inauguration six months ago, the New York MAGA team traveled together to Washington, D.C., to celebrate Trump’s victory. Helping to organize the team was Chinese-American Stephanie Liu. On that day, Liu and other MAGA team members launched a fundraiser for the January 6 defendants, individuals convicted for their roles in the 2021 Capitol insurrection. 

They distributed $3,000 in cash — divided into 23 envelopes of $100 or $200 — to each of the incarcerated defendants. Penned on the top of the envelopes was the donor name and a handwritten note: “Thank you for your sacrifice for our country and our freedom! God bless you!”

It wasn’t the first time that Liu and her network demonstrated unwavering support and loyalty to Trump. Beginning in 2022, the New York MAGA team raised money for the January 6 defendants regularly. In a conversation with Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys, Liu said he told her that 80% of the Proud Boys’ donations came from Chinese Americans, and apparently, the inmates called them “The Chinese MAGA Mamas.”

Since Trump’s first term, thousands of Chinese Americans like Stephanie Liu have been drawn to Trump’s MAGA message. In June 2016, a group called Chinese Americans for Trump was invited to meet with Trump at a private event near his Beverly Hills home. The founder of the group, David Tian Wang, led a MAGA campaign on the Chinese social media platform WeChat, with over 6,000 registered members. 

The leader of the New York MAGA Team, Stephanie Liu, belongs to over 30 MAGA-themed WeChat groups, with members from across the U.S. One primary fundraising group has 55 members. Another, the “Support-Trump Love Freedom Action Group,” has over 380 members and serves as a hub for discussing Trump’s policies and sharing conservative views. One message that received a lot of “applause” read: “Anyone who loves the United States is a fan of Trump. Anyone who wants to take advantage of the country is an opponent of Trump.” 

Liu has lived in the U.S. for over 30 years. Before arriving, she and her husband worked as correspondents for one of China’s largest state media outlets but faced political scrutiny and professional marginalization, which led her to believe there was no freedom in China. 

For Liu, the MAGA movement was the embodiment of the freedom she long yearned for. Her support for January 6 defendants was a stand against socialism and authoritarianism in the U.S. In her eyes, the Capitol riot was “a peaceful protest,” and the law enforcement response to it represented a serious threat to the very freedoms she holds dear. “I felt there was a crisis,” she said in Mandarin. “Political persecution was imminent. What’s the difference between that and China?” In her mind, if the U.S. became like China, then her pursuit of freedom and the American Dream would be meaningless; her material standard of living in China was much better than here. “Only if America becomes ‘Great Again’ can I justify the life I gave up,” Liu said.

Still, inside the Chinese-American MAGA movement, visible divisions and debates have sprung up, not just on domestic issues, but also on Trump’s tariffs and other foreign policies. 

The emperor has no clothes

Dr. Randy Su, an aerospace engineer, voted for Trump last November. He now says he is reconsidering his choice after losing more than half a million dollars in his stock investments. In May, Su got into a heated debate on the social platform WeChat with Harry Xu, a member of the New York MAGA Team who currently resides in New Jersey. 

“Such a colossal failure of leadership has brought the American people catastrophic losses,” Su said, debating with Xu about the stock market loss. “And it’s no coincidence, but an exact resemblance of Trump’s notorious and gangster’s impulsive personal behavior exhibited throughout his entire business history….!” 

In terms of foreign policies, Su initially embraced the idea of reviving American manufacturing by imposing tariffs on adversaries like China and Vietnam. But he strongly opposed Trump’s tariffs on U.S. allies, as well as his stance toward the European Union and Canada. “I think Trump ended up like Don Quixote, who fights everybody,” Su told Documented. “I am opposed to his tariff policies. He changes his mind frequently.”

Su also openly criticized what he called Trump’s “bullying” of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, and Vice President JD Vance’s “blistering” speech in Europe, saying that it alienated key American allies. At a deeper level, Su fundamentally aligns himself with the Republican establishment, which is known for valuing traditional principles, like small government, capitalism, and strong military and economic alliances. More importantly, he believes the country should be governed by establishment politicians — those who act professionally and thoughtfully — rather than by political amateurs. 

Su’s take wasn’t completely singular. Pingkai Liu, an engineer at Amazon in Manhattan, supported Su’s perspective and came to his defense in the WeChat debate. Pingkai Liu firmly opposes  continued U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war. He had hoped that Trump would fulfill his campaign promise to end the conflict “immediately” and was disappointed when that did not happen. 

“The United States no longer has the capacity to intervene in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The only ones benefiting from this war are the major arms industry conglomerates,” Pingkai Liu said.

His frustration deepened recently after learning about the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” in the House of Representatives, which included a $150 billion increase in defense spending. He had previously supported Trump’s calls to reduce federal spending, especially in areas like defense, which he viewed as “wasteful.” Now, he believes Trump has broken that promise. “He promised to cut federal spending, but now he’s increasing it again,” Liu said. “That doesn’t make any sense to me.” In his view, it was just another way to drain taxpayers’ money.

Su was kicked out of that WeChat group after that debate. Later, he began to distance himself from the Chinese-American MAGA community and saw them as a group incited by Trump’s nationalistic rhetoric, lacking independent thought. “They hail him as a king,” Su said, “It’s like the Emperor’s New Clothes. Now you can see he’s wearing none.”

‘Disillusioned with the United States’

In April, when Trump’s “Liberation Day” arrived, Stephanie Liu had lost $100,000 in the stock market, she said. Still, her belief in Trump remained firm. “Most of those who backlash are self-interested, but I am the one who really loves this country,” Liu said.

When asked whether she worries about her job at NYU Medical School following recent NIH funding cuts, Liu responded: “Not at all. I am old enough to retire, and I cherish integrity rather than material interest.” In fact, when told that layoffs were imminent, Liu approached her supervisor with a bold offer: “Please lay me off first if you need to cut employees.”

Laura Zhang, by contrast, supported Trump for more personal reasons. When she first arrived in the U.S., she placed her trust in the American healthcare system, believing her daughter would receive better treatment under U.S. medical practices. However, after ten years of seeing little improvement through Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy — a widely used treatment for autism that she began in China and continued in the U.S. — she grew disillusioned, particularly under Democratic administrations. She now believes a U.S. vaccine caused her daughter’s condition and strongly opposes all vaccinations.

“It is a devil masquerading as an angel,” Zhang said of the Democratic Party, adding that the healthcare system it oversees is as “hypocritical” as the party itself. Still, her recent experiences have left her disappointed in the Trump administration as well.

Ultimately, she realized that both Democrats and Republicans failed to help her daughter get the good treatment and education she had expected.

“I have become disillusioned with the United States,” Zhang said.“I honestly don’t know what to do now,” she added, her voice heavy with helplessness. “What about special children like us — with autism?”

Zhang found herself in a dilemma. Her daughter, born in the United States, cannot access China’s public healthcare and education systems unless she renounces her U.S. citizenship — something she has held and valued for 12 years. However, the uncertainty brought on by the Trump administration has posed an unprecedented challenge to their family.

After returning to China, Zhang is now homeschooling her daughter. As for the future, Zhang is closely watching U.S. policies before deciding whether she should bring her daughter back to the country or not.